A young Northern Ireland woman has opened up about overcoming a number of hurdles and learning to live with epilepsy.
Molly Martin, is an award-winning photographer and was diagnosed with epilepsy as a child. The 26-year-old has told how her seizures were so unpredictable they made her not want to leave her home.
Encountering health challenges she encountered when her medication stopped working, Molly said: "These seizures made me lose control of my bladder. I began to not trust my body and I didn’t want to leave the house."
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She continued: "There was a period of time when my piercing headaches, triple vision, and despite being physically conscious, the part of my brain controlling emotion and rational hadn’t regained consciousness yet so I would say and do things totally not like ‘Molly’.
"An example being undressing myself, shouting sentences that made no sense, and I would have no or very little recognition of these."
Epilepsy is a neurological brain disorder in which the brain’s activity becomes abnormal, resulting in a seizure and Molly is speaking out to raise awareness on Purple Day, March 26, for Epilepsy Awareness.
Purple Day was founded by Canadian Woman Cassidy Megan, her vision was to raise awareness for people to struggle with epilepsy inspired by her own personal experiences.
The colour purple represents Epilepsy as lavender was used to treat people who lived with Epilepsy.
An individual's personal experience of seizures will differ from others, as Molly explained: "My seizures varied from minutes to seconds, usually months apart, although there was a time when I was having them three times a week and some twice daily which was a very worrying and physically trying time.’
"My tonic-clonic seizures started when I was thirteen. I remember them and the feeling of being frozen in time but as a young child I didn't think this was abnormal so I never thought to mention anything to my parents," added Molly
Emotional stress and fear can trigger epileptic seizures. As these experiences can continue to impact lack of sleep which for many people can result in a seizure
But determined not to let it get the better of her, Molly added: "I never let epilepsy rule my life."
A graduate of Ulster University with a BA Hons in Photography with Video with International Study from Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest, Hungary, Molly's work has been recognised with a number of awards.
Her artistic practice is a combination of photography, video and performance art. Using the body as a performative tool to focus on personal subject matters including epilepsy.
Her recent body of work ‘Misshapen States’ is a nine-minute video-based piece that explores the boundaries of the body and mind. She won the Inaugural Video Award at the current RUA Exhibition in the Ulster Museum, Belfast.
"Thankfully I am on medication that has kept me seizure free for some time now. I take medication twice daily to stem my seizures and have been very lucky that my body has taken well to my dosage," added Molly.
To find out more about Molly or her work you can follow her Instagram at @molly_martin_photo.
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